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LANDRIEU, CITGO FENDED OFF VENEZUELA SANCTIONS, EMAILS SHOW: Oil company Citgo teamed up with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Mary Landrieu to block a package of Venezuelan sanctions that senators were considering last week, emails obtained by POLITICO reveal. Citgo — the wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company — raised concerns that the package targeted at human rights abusers would hurt the company’s ability to import crude oil to its Gulf Coast refinery in Port Charles, La., eliminating jobs, according to the documents. Landrieu’s office confirmed her involvement in heading off the sanctions package. The Louisiana Democrat faces a tough reelection fight and is under pressure to show she can wield her energy chairmanship to help her state. Byron Tau has the story: http://politi.co/1ybA3f1

OIL JUMPS ON IRAQ AIRSTRIKE NEWS: Via Reuters: “Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic rose more than $1 on Friday, with Brent nearing $107 a barrel after the United States approved air strikes against Islamic militants in Iraq, raising the threat of oil disruptions from the key oil producer. … Brent spiked above $115 in mid-June on fears that violence in Iraq would disrupt oil supplies from the OPEC member. But prices fell back more than $10 over the past six weeks as it became clear that Iraqi oil continued to flow steadily from southern fields, and as investors shifted attention to what appeared to be an oversupplied global oil market.” Reuters: http://bit.ly/1lFViQx

WALSH OUT OF THE RUNNING: Montana Democrat John Walsh yesterday dropped out of Montana’s competitive Senate race following accusations of plagiarism over his 2007 master’s thesis. Walsh will remain in the seat through the end of the term to which he was appointed after Max Baucus’s resignation, but the news is a big boost to Republican Steve Daines, who has already been leading in the polls. The Montana Democratic Party now has until Aug. 20 to name a new candidate in the November election — and not a strong bench to choose from. More from Manu Raju and Maggie Haberman: http://politi.co/1lF7dhy

Only a few energy PACs reported giving to Walsh, including the American Wind Energy Association, Cheniere Energy and Xcel. Walsh did benefit from green-minded cash that the League of Conservation Voters collected through its GiveGreen program — at least $27,125.11, according to FEC records covering through June. The group, which removed Walsh from the GiveGreen website after the news broke yesterday, did not say how much the program raised for Walsh in total. LCV did not comment on ME’s questions yesterday about the group’s plans for the Montana Senate race.

— Energy interests largely were in favor of Daines. The freshman congressman has brought in at least $245,000 from oil and gas PACs and employees for this election, his third largest industry after retirement interests and the securities and investments sector, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, whose figures cover only through May. Daines has also gotten almost $100,000 from the mining industry and $34,000 from electric utilities.

WEEKEND PRIMARY — IN HAWAII, SCHATZ FACES HANABUSA: Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa are going head to head on Saturday in the Hawaii’s Democratic primary. This could be a close race; polls generally have shown Schatz with a small lead, but with significant chunks of undecided voters. This is also a highly personal race; Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed Schatz to the seat after Daniel Inouye’s death in 2012 — but Inouye had pushed for Hanabusa to replace him. Environmental groups have largely backed Schatz, with the League of Conservation Voters dropping at least $380,000 on ads ahead of the primary, and endorsements coming from the Sierra Club, Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg, as well as President Barack Obama.

Bad timing: Hawaii’s primary comes just as two hurricane-strength storms are bearing down on the archipelago, though state officials have vowed to carry on with the election. The Washington Post has more on what the storms could mean for the primary: http://wapo.st/1kqel6e

And in Tennessee, Alexander wins easily: Sen. Lamar Alexander trumpeted his GOP primary victory over a group of tea party challengers on Tuesday as a vindication of his brand of deal-cutting pragmatism. James Hohmann has more: http://politi.co/1r46r0H

ANOTHER COLORADO FRACKING BAN STRUCK DOWN: A Colorado judge yesterday struck down a five-year fracking moratorium passed by voters last year in Fort Collins, Colo., the second such local ban to fall in a matter of weeks. The suit was brought by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. Judge Gregory M. Lammons's ruling echoed one last month from another state judge that struck down a fracking ban in Longmont. Lammons ruled that Fort Collins’s ban is preempted by a state law because “substantially impedes the state’s significant interest in fostering efficient and equitable oil and gas production” and “conflicts with the Oil and Gas Conservation Act because it prohibits what the Act expressly authorizes the Commission to permit.” The order: http://politico.pro/1pf8TmO

Reactions: “Today was yet another clear and unequivocal victory for Coloradans and for the strong, robust and vibrant system of oil and gas regulations in our state,” said COGA President Tisha Schuller. Rep. Jared Polis, who earlier this week dropped two planned ballot initiatives for a compromise commission to study fracking in Colorado, slammed the decision. “Today's decision is ridiculous, it should be up to each community to decide if they want fracking, not the courts,” he said, according to the Coloradoan: http://noconow.co/1sCHRHh

FERC’S NORRIS HEADED TO ROME: Iowa Democrat John Norris, whom President Barack Obama appointed to the agency in 2010, is leaving his post Aug. 20, nearly three years before his current term ends, to become minister-counselor in Italy for the Agriculture Department. The details of his new minister-counselor position, which will eventually send Norris to Rome, have been worked out only recently, he said in a brief phone conversation Thursday afternoon. He would take the USDA job upon his resignation from FERC, but the timetable for moving to Europe has not been finished. Darius Dixon has more: http://politico.pro/1pZHD86

Speaking of FERC: Chairwoman Cheryl LaFleur yesterday appointed David L. Morenoff was the agency's general counsel. Morenoff served in several positions at FERC's Office of the General Counsel, and was previously an adviser to then-Chairman Jon Wellinghoff. Before joining FERC in 2006, Morenoff was at attorney at Troutman Sanders and was a legislative aide to Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

FELDT TO BE ACTING EPA #2 WITH PERCIASEPE DEPARTURE: EPA’s Associate Deputy Administrator Lisa Feldt will take over for EPA’s number two, Bob Perciasepe, as he leaves the agency this week to become president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Administrator Gina McCarthy announced to agency staff yesterday. “Bob — your service as Deputy Administrator has been legendary,” McCarthy said. “You’ve handled the hard times like a champion — you’ve helped EPA navigate two government-shutdowns, and you’ve jumped through hoops of fire countless times on Capitol Hill,” McCarthy said, according to prepared remarks. “I’m going to miss you wearing jeans on Friday, only to realize that you have to change into a suit for that White House meeting. I’m going to miss your quick wit and your even quicker smarts. And of course, I’m going to miss your sage advice and just hanging out with you.”

But wait, there’s more: There are more high-level moves in the works. Craig Hooks, the agency’s top HR official, is leaving, along with Maryann Froelich, acting chief financial officer, and Nancy Stoner, acting chief of the agency’s water office. Victoria Wassmer was nominated to be CFO at the agency in September and made it through the EPW Committee in February. Stoner, a former Natural Resources Defense Council staffer, has been acting head of the water office since 2011. The Obama administration’s three-time nominee to head the water office, Ken Kopocis, has been held up by senators opposed to the work of the office. Kopocis, who has been working as a senior adviser to Stoner since his nomination, will become deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Water.

ERNST TALKS UP RFS SUPPORT: In the wake of criticisms from Democrat Bruce Braley, Tom Steyer’s camp and others, Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst will talk up her support for the RFS alongside Gov. Terry Branstad, state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and others today. Ernst will talk about the RFS and speak with media this morning before hitting the Des Moines Register's Soapbox. Ernst says she would like to jettison all energy subsidies, but will defend the RFS until that happens. Her campaign has also pushed back on the notion that Ernst opposes the RFS.

MONIZ, FOXX TALK QER: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will attend to Quadrennial Energy Review meetings today. He begins this morning in Chicago for an outreach session on rail, barge and truck transportation alongside Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy. Then Moniz and Foxx are off to Bismarck, N.D., to talk infrastructure constraints alongside Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Sens. John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp, Rep. Kevin Cramer, and Assistant Interior Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Janice Schneider. Moniz, Hoeven and Heitkamp are also scheduled to tour a gasification company in Beulah this evening and hold a press conference at the Tioga Gas Plant in Minot on Saturday.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS INTERIOR FOR MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING: Sen. Lisa Murkowski and 20 other Senate Republicans want Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to include lease sales in the Atlantic, the Arctic and Alaska's Cook Inlet in the department’s next five-year offshore drilling plan, covering 2017-2022. “As the next program is finalized, please know that we will only support a leasing program that continues to develop in current exploration areas and includes new access in areas such as Alaska and the Atlantic regions,” they write: http://1.usa.gov/1vgXtUj

Related — House Dems want less drilling: Forty-five House Democrats sent the opposite message in their own letter yesterday. The lawmakers ask Jewell not to lease areas in the Atlantic and off the West Coast, and to exclude the North Aleutian Basin — home to Bristol Bay — and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas from the next five-year plan. Read: http://politico.pro/V22GyL